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[quote user="daveklepper"] My own experience:    (1)  On-off small town passengers for whom air is too expensive or too inconvenient.   (2) those who want to enjoy the travel as well as destination, including both business and vacation travel, and who want the the travel to be pleasant and the ability to see the country.  (3) those with psychological or physical impairment who cannot or won't fly.  (3) Coach passengers who want economical transpotation but are unwilling to put up with general discomforts of bus travel.  (4) Tourists for whom the train trip is the experience.   (5) Railfans  (6) Nostalgia, wanting to experience what they did as a child or what their parents or grandparents told them they did. This is based on many conversations I had when on-board trains  [/quote] Your categorization of those who ride Amtrak's long distance trains is seconded by my experiences.  I have taken annually at least three long distance train trips since retiring nearly six years ago. I ride coach class if I am only on the train during daylight hours.  However, for overnight travel I book a roomette.  Most of the people that I have encountered on the sleepers are well off.  Many of them were retired or foreign nationals traveling in the U.S. on holiday.  I have not encountered many people who confessed to being afraid of air travel.  Some have told me that they were taking the train for the experience; others said that they did not like to drive.  Traveling sleeper class is expensive.  Only reasonably well off people can afford it.  For example, the fare plus roomette charges on the Texas Eagle and Lakeshore Limited from Austin to New York on March 15th and 16th would cost $870 one way.   The room charges would average $341.50 per night.  This is more than double the average cost of a hotel room in the United States, although it includes meals.  In fact, the cost of a room at the LaQuinta Inn on West 33rd Street is only $239 plus taxes. According to Amtrak, in FY08 a typical long distance passenger traveled 626 miles, which supports my observation that most sleeping car passengers are on the train for just one night.  Moreover, in the case of the long haul western trains, i.e. California Zephyr, Empire Builder, etc., only four per cent of the passengers travel from end point to end point, according to an article that I read somewhere.  I cannot remember where I saw it.      Coach passengers tend to be a mixed bag.  Most of them appear to be traveling on a tight budget, although I have seen exceptions.  Many of the coach passengers that I have encountered on the long distance trains were relatively young (20s) or old (60+).  Some were students traveling on holiday; many were retired.  Most of them probably could not afford a sleeper.  On the other hand, I have talked to a few coach passengers, who were probably solidly middle class, e.g. lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc.  On one occasion, on the Empire Builder, I encountered a large group of coach passengers who were returning to Minneapolis after attending an arts function in Chicago.  Most people who go to arts functions are middle class.        The coach fare from Austin to New York would be $197.  In addition, the cost of meals could add another $75 to the cost.  Yes, I know, they would have to eat somewhere if they were not on the train, so the true cost of eating on the train would be the marginal cost of the train meals over similar meals at home or an outside eatery.  No need to go there.  The cost to fly to New York from Austin on March 15th would be $172 for a non-stop flight or $165 for a two stop flight.  Assuming the passenger checks one bag, the total cost for the non-stop flight would be $197.  The train ride to New York would take more than 48 hours.  The flight would take approximately 3.5 hours.
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